India’s air passenger traffic continued to shrink, dropping nearly four per cent in January 2013, according to data from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). Air traffic fell in most months of the last calendar year as high fares and a slowing economy dented demand. The rise in fares was partly because of the grounding of Kingfisher Airlines Ltd since October, which reduced the number of flights.

India’s domestic airlines carried 5.13 million passengers in January against 5.33 million the year before, a reduction of 3.77 per cent. “Analysis of capacity and demand data on year-to-year basis indicates that both the capacity and demand showed declining trend,” DGCA said in its report for January 2013.

The market share of airlines remained largely unchanged, with IndiGo continuing as the largest at 27.4 per cent followed by Air India Ltd (20.3 per cent), Jet Airways (India) Ltd (20 per cent), SpiceJet Ltd (18.4 per cent) and GoAir (7.6 per cent). Jet Airways subsidiary Jet Konnect had a 6.2 per cent share. Both together had a 26.2 per cent market share, putting them ahead of Air India.

IndiGo, GoAir and Air India had the highest passenger occupancy on their flights, data showed, followed by Jet Konnect, Jet Airways and SpiceJet.